-
9/11 Commissions Act
The 9/11 Commission's Act was signed on August 3rd, 2007 by President George W Bush. This act protected Americans from being unduly prosecuted for reporting activity that could lead to acts of terrorism. This act also takes steps to modernize the visa waiver program, working on advancing foreign policy objectives by allowing greater flexibility to bring some of our closest allies to the program. -
The 2008 Presidential Election
November 4th of 2008 Democratic United States Senator Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th president of the United States. This election was huge because Obama was the first ever African American president. Obama being elected was a huge step in history and showed just how much our country has grown from where we were many years ago. -
US Airways Flight 1549
On January 15th 2009, the Airbus A320, which was the plane used on flight 1549 struck a flock of birds shortly after its take off. The plane lost all engine power, given their position and the available airports, and the low altitude they were sitting at, the two pilots Chesley and Jeffrey had to make a fast decision. The two pilots decided to glide the plane to ditching on the Hudson River which was successful saving all 155 people. The time from bird strike to ditching was only 4 minutes. -
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig Explodes
On April 20th 2010 the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank. This resulted in the death of 11 employees and is still considered the largest oil spill in the history of Marine drilling operations. -
Barack Obama announces Osama Bin Laden death
On May 2nd 2011 President Obama was able to announce that the day before the leader of the group Al-Qaeda, Osma Bin Laden was killed by US forces. This was huge for America's war on terrorism because Bin Laden was the most wanted fugitive by the United States during this time. The death and custody of the body of Bin Laden was a big step in the fight against terrorists and showed Americans that the efforts in the Middle East had an important cause. -
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
On December 14th 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut there was a school shooting where 26 people died. 20 of the people dead were students all between ages 6 and 7, the other 6 people were staff members. The shooter was 20 year old Adam Lanza who killed himself before police could arrive with a gunshot to the head. This shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in Connecticut history and will always be an awful day in history. -
Boston Marathon Bombing
On April 15th 2013, two bombs hidden in backpacks went off near the finish line of the boston marathon killing three spectators and also injuring many others. The bombers were the two Tsarnaev brothers who spent part of their childhood in the soviet republic and who had many complications with the law in the past. After the bombing they took it to another level they killed an officer and then took a man hostage trying to escape the FBI who had them on their list of suspects. -
More States Legalize Gay Marriage
In 2014 16 States in the United States legalized gay marriage, these states were, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, North Carolina, Idaho, Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina. All these states becoming more inclusive was a big deal for the United States. All the growth just showed how much the United States was changing during this time which is always good. -
Gypsy Rose Blanchard
On June 14th 2015 Gypsy Rose Blanchard mom was found stabbed to death in the back left to bleed out. The murder was done by Gypsy the daughter and became a major case about child abuse because for years gypsy mom had been making Gypsy sick on purpose to get sympathy and money. Gypsy was suspected to be a part of the murdering when neighbors saw spots on facebook from her saying "that b-word is dead!" Gypsy was sentenced to many years and jail but also put light on this kind of child abuse. -
Donald Trump Elected President
On November 8th 2016 an election for the 45th president was held and was won by Donald trump. Donald Trump became the first president ever to not have political or military experience. He did not start in politics and was actually a businessman, he remained president with impeachment attempts twice until the 2020 election. -
The Women's March
On January 21st 2017 the day after Donald Trump was officially in office women gathered to show their voice against Donald Trump and to show that women view his policies as misogynistic. women wanted to show they saw him in office as a threat to their rights, so many women came together that at the time it was the largest single day protest in United States history. -
2018 Midterm Elections
In the 2018 midterm elections more women than ever before were elected into the house of representatives. The midterm elections were a big step for women with also both the first muslim and native american women being elected into the house. Also south dakota got their first women governor, Kristi Noem. Not only did women make progress in the house but Arizona also elected their first woman senator in 2018, Krysten Sinema. -
The US Government shutdown
Starting on december 22nd 2018 and going until January 25th 2019 making it the longest government shutdown in US history and left 800,000 employees being shut down and unpaid. The shutdown was caused by not being able to agree on the appropriations bill to fund the operations of the federal government for the 2019 fiscal year, because Trump was trying to fund the wall in between the US and Mexico. -
Trump Impeachment
In August of 2019 there was an anonymous tip in the Trump administration that Trump had called Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, and urged him to investigate alleged corruption by Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Joe Biden sat on the board of Ukraine Energy but Trump making this call was against the law. you're not allowed to solicit help from foreign governments in digging up dirt on your political rival. trump went through an impeachment trial but ended up staying in office for his full term. -
COVID-19
The covid-19 pandemic started to become a big issue for the American people, causing everything to start shutting down in March 2020. The pandemic led to a huge quarantine and lots of people had to do school and work from home. Thousands of cases of covid were getting diagnosed and everything was becoming social distance and separated. -
The BLM protests
The black lives matter protests started in March of 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer killed an innocent black man by sitting on his neck and refusing to get up even when the man was begging him exclaiming that he can't breathe. This obstruction of justice started huge protests that eventually got out of hand and became riots causing violence and harm to Minneapolis. -
The 2020 election
On November 3rd 2020 the election for the 46th president was held and was won by democratic candidate Joe biden. Joe Biden won the election and with him was his running mate Kamala Harris who was the first vice president to be a woman and to be a woman of color. A vice president who was a woman was a big step for America and got women one step closer to having a female run our country. -
The United States Supports Ukraine
The United States, which is an ally with Ukraine, started to send aid and military troops in 2021 to them during their fight to keep Russia from taking them over. The United States has helped Ukraine a lot and has made it way harder for Russia to just do whatever they want. Ukraine was really struggling against Russia's big army but with the United States they've been able to push back and keep their freedom. -
Trump skips the Biden Inauguration
After the election of 2020 when Joe Biden won he was inaugurated in January of 2021. Since Trump was the president before him, he should be there to see Joe Biden take over the office like other presidents have before him. But, Trump was actually the fist outgoing president to not go to his successor's inauguration since 1869 which was Andrew johnson. This was so crazy for people to see and added another piece of history to this election. -
Roe v Wade overturned
on june 24th 2022 the roe v wade decision from 1973 was overturned by the supreme court making abortions not a federal decision but a states decision. Now that states are allowed to choose if they want to allow abortions. this was a big decision that made many people have different feeling and opinions on the topic and was seen b a step back by many women.