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Henry Ford’s company introduced the Model T, a low-cost car that helped make automobiles affordable for many Americans.
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In January 1917, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a secret telegram to Mexico proposing a military alliance if the United States entered World War I against Germany. Germany promised to help Mexico regain lost territories in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. British intelligence intercepted and decoded the message and shared it with the United States. When the telegram became public in March 1917, American outrage grew and helped push the United States toward declaring war.
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Germany agreed to an armistice with the Allies, ending the fighting in World War I on the Western Front.
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On August 18, 1920, the United States ratified the 19th Amendment, which banned denying the right to vote based on sex. This change, achieved after decades of women’s suffrage activism, finally gave millions of American women the legal right to vote.
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Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris.
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Panic selling hit the New York Stock Exchange, marking the beginning of the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched programs to provide jobs, relief, and financial reforms during the Great Depression.
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Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, giving the Nazi Party control of the German government.
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Britain and France agreed to let Germany take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in hopes of avoiding war.
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Germany invaded Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany and starting World War II in Europe.
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Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, leading the United States to enter World War II.
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Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control.
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created as a military alliance between the United States, Canada, and Western European nations.
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The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, leading to Japan’s surrender in World War II.
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The United Nations was officially founded to promote peace, cooperation, and conflict resolution among nations after WWII.
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U.S. diplomat George Kennan sent a long telegram from Moscow urging a firm U.S. policy to contain Soviet expansion.
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The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, ending the U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons and intensifying the Cold War.
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War broke out when North Korea invaded South Korea; the U.S. and UN backed the South, while China aided the North.
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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A tense standoff occurred when the U.S. discovered Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, bringing the world close to nuclear war.
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President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
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A long conflict in which the U.S. supported South Vietnam against communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong.
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After reported attacks on U.S. ships, Congress passed a resolution giving President Johnson broad powers to use military force in Vietnam.
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NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, and Armstrong became the first person to walk on it.
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Burglars linked to President Nixon’s reelection campaign were caught breaking into the Democratic Party offices at the Watergate complex.
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Facing almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon resigned from office.
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The Internet developed from U.S. defense research networks into a global communication system connecting computers worldwide.
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East German authorities allowed people to cross the Berlin Wall, leading to its destruction and symbolizing the end of the Cold War division of Europe.
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Terrorists hijacked four airplanes, crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.
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A new coronavirus spread worldwide, causing a global health crisis, lockdowns, and major social and economic disruption.